Kylie Stillman
Filtering modern art and craft traditions through her own inventive sensibility, Melbourne-based artist Kylie Stillman transforms common materials into divine works of art. Her sculptures reveal a dexterous ability to work with a range of materials, from paper stacks and timber constructs to outdated book volumes and ballpoint pens. Not many artists make art by taking the subject away, but for Stillman this is the secret. When working with books, each sheet of paper is painstakingly carved by hand with a scalpel to create forms that emerge in absence.
Stillman completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts with honours at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in 1999. She has since held several solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group shows, including Wonderland, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (2012), Size of Life, Gippsland Art Gallery (2010), Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia (2008), Snap Freeze: Still Life Now, Tarrawarra Museum of Art (2007), The Informal Garden, Gertrude Contemporary (2005) and Uncanny: The Unnaturally Strange, Artspace, Auckland (2005). Stillman has been awarded Australia Council for the Arts studio residencies in New York (2009) and Milan (2006) and she has been commissioned to create large-scale artworks for Hermes Australia (2011) and Westpac Banking Group (2010).
View available works here
eucalypt(tpyl).jpg)
solo exhibitions
group exhibitions
exhibition catalogues
news
Glimmer WarningNovember 25, 2023 to February 18, 2024
A solo exhibition of recent work by Kylie Stillman, Glimmer Warning will include a brand new site specific wall work. Stillman has also created new stitched works on paper.
Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria
20 Years of Town Hall GalleryNov 1, 2023 to Jan 20, 2024
Town Hall Gallery in Hawthorne, Melbourne is celebrating it Twentieth Anniversary with an exhibition of the highlights of its collection. Includes Kylie Stillman's " Scape', a large wooden sculpture
Bayside LocalFebruary - March 2023
Bayside Council, Brighton Town Hall, Melbourne
Kylie Stillman again exhibiting in this exhibition to celebrate artists from the region of South East Melbourne.
Kylie Stillman Eucalypt at AGSAOctober 2022
Euclaypt was originally commissioned by the Castlemaine Gallery in Victoria. This sculpture is made from recycled plastic planks. It has recently been acquired by the Art Gallery of South Australia, to be installed in the gardens of Government Hous.
Frankston Arts Centre, VictoriaUntil March 19 2022
Kylie Stillman used the lingering Melbourne lockdowns to explore using new materials. This work is made from 300 sheets of hand-cut aluminium.
Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary ArtMay 6 to July 1 2021
Kylie Stillman is a finalist in this year's award, in which artists responded to the theme 'Return'
At Montsalvat, Eltham, Victoria
McClelland Gallery National Small Sculpture Award 2020September 2020
Kylie Stillman is a finalist in this online initiative to support artists in COVID times.
McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, Melbourne
Not fully or properly either of two thingsFrom July 11 to August 30 2020
The Town Hall Gallery at the Hawthorn Arts Centre in Melbourne is opening a 20 year survey of work by Kylie Stillman, including large timber sculptures, hand stitched works on paper and her iconic hand carved books.
A Stitch In TimeNovember 30 2019 to February 28 2020
Curated by Maudie Palmer, this exhibition invited 7 prominent Australian artists who use traditional craft techniques to create powerful contemporary statements.
Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award 2019to November 17 2019
Kylie Stillman a finalist in this year's Art on Paper Award at Hazelhurst Gallery, Sydney.
The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives The FlowerMay 3 to June 16 2019
Kylie Stillman included in this exhibition at Noosa Regional Gallery that includes artists who explore the interconnectedness of nature and humankind.
Eucalyptus Commissionfrom March 22 2019
Kylie Stillman was awarded the inaugural Eucalyptus Commission to install a sculpture outside Castlemaine Art Museum in Victoria, as part of the Castemaine State Festival.
Montalto Sculpture PrizeFrom February 24
Kylie Stillman is the winner of the acquisitive 2019 Montalto Sculpture Prize on the Mornington Peninsula.
Trace24 November - 24 February
The newly completed Bunjil Place Galllery in Narre Warren, Victoria has as its summer exhibition Trace, an exploration of artists using innovative and unconventional methods of drawing, featuring Kylie Stillman.
Kylie Stillman: National works on paper 20 July - 9 September, 2018
Kylie Stillman a finalist in the NWOP exhibition at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery.
Boundless Volumes30 November, 2017 - 11 February, 2018
Excess leather bound volumes of Parliamentary proceedings have provided an opportunity for the Parliament House Art Collection to engage with artists to create new artworks that reinterpret, re-use and recycle these incredibly evocative objects. Includes Simryn Gill and Kylie Stillman.
Presiding Officer's Exhibition Area, New Parliament House, Canberra
Kylie Stillman: All the better to see you with, Fairy Tales TransformedUntil March 4, 2018
Featuring international and Australian artists, All the better to see you with explores artists' use of the fairy tale to express social concerns and anxieties surrounding issues such as the abuse of power, injustice and exploitation. Includes Kylie Stillman.
Ian Potter Museum of Art at Melbourne University.
Kylie Stillman: Another Look28 October - 20 December, 2017
Kylie Stillman commissioned new works for the Hawthorn, 'Town Hall Gallery' collection.
Driven by research into the collection's history and the many artworks and objects that make it up, Stillman was asked alongside four other artists to create works in response to the 'Town Hall Gallery' collection.
Kylie Stillman: NOTE9 October - 12 December, 2017
North Fitzroy Library, Melbourne, VIC
NOTE is an exhibition plays on the casual nature of the handwritten note, but Kylie Stillman has carved these into small stacks of books, giving permanency to otherwise disposable messages.
Kylie Stillman: Opposite of Wild27 May - 6 August, 2017
Kylie Stillman presents the 'Opposite of Wild' at Linden New Art, Melbourne
The Opposite of Wild is a new body of work created specifically for the Linden New Art's temporary space at Domain House, Melbourne.
Local Branch9 September - 30 October, 2106
Local Branch is a commissioned work Kylie Stillman created from over 500 paperback books 'weeded' from the Hawkesbury Library collection. The work is featured in the exhibition 'Chose your own adventure' at the Hawkesbury Regional Gallery.
Kylie Stillman3 June - 29 July, 2016
Congratulations Kylie Stillman, a finalist in the Fleurieu Art Prize.
Winner of Peoples Choice award.
At Anne & Gordon Samstang Museum of Art
Kylie Stillman - The Art LifeAugust 2015
Read Sharne Wolff's lovely review of Stillman's show 'Over, Under, Around and Through' here:
http://theartlife.com.au/2015/over-under-around-and-through/
Kylie StillmanJune 2014
Find work by Kylie Stillman in the exhibition
‘Re-Writing the Image: Text as Art', at the
Town Hall Gallery, Hawthorn from
17 June until 10 August 2014.
Four new book carvings by Kylie Stillman
have just arrived in the gallery, after being exhibited in Ex Libris at Geelong Art Gallery.
Kylie Stillman - Geelong GalleryJanuary 2014
New Kylie Stillman book carvings will be included in ‘Ex libris - the book in contemporary art’ at Geelong Gallery from 22 February to 25 May 2014.
Kylie StillmanAugust 2013
Kylie Stillman's exhibition ‘The Perversity of Purpose’ is now showing.
View online catalogue
Coming Up: Kylie StillmanJuly 2013
‘The Perversity of Purpose’, an exhibition of new sculpture by Kylie Stillman, will be opening on Saturday 3 August from 3 – 5pm. Save the date!
Kylie Stillman: Air BornJune 2013
Works by Kylie Stillman will feature in ‘Air Born’, an exhibition looking at contemporary art inspired by birds, at the McClelland Gallery & Sculpture Park, from 23 June to 6 October 2013.
Kylie Stillman: LocalSeptember 2012
Find sculpture by Melbourne-based artist Kylie Stillman at Wyndham Art Gallery, Werribee.
‘Local, an exhibition of Wyndham’s professional artists’ closes 30 September. Save the date: 19 September 2012, 5 - 8pm.
Kylie Stillman - Taipei and Melbournefebruary 2012
Kylie Stillman's work will be featured in 'Wonderland: New Contempory Art from Australia' at the Museum of Contempory Art, Taipei from11 February –15 April 2012.
Also, see the arist's work in a window installation, 'The Opposite of Wild', on view from the street at 39-41 Arnold St, South Yarra until 13 March.
Kylie Stillman at Hermes store windowAugust 2011
Check out Kylie Stillman's large-scale installation in the Hermès store window on Market Street in the Sydney CBD.
Kylie Stillman's largest paper workOctober 2010
Kylie Stillman's largest paper work to date was commissioned for the Westpac Corporate Art Collection. The tryptich sculpture Banksias is made from three stacks of computer paper positioned on an old style banker's desk, and was inspired by a visit to the archives in Westpac's Martin Place building.
Kylie Stillman, solo exhibitionOctober 2010
Kylie has a solo exhibition opening in November at Gippsland Art Gallery in Sale, Victoria. The exhibition dates are 20 November 2010 to 2 January, 2011 and it will be officially opened on Friday 3 December by Christopher Hodges.
Kylie Stillman's is an art of reduction, where presence is born of absence. In the last ten years Stillman has built a practice based on voids and negative space, carved from inert materials such as books and stacks of paper. Through this language of absence she fathoms fantastic menageries of plants and animals, faithfully presented in concise nomenclature...
Simon Gregg, Curator, Gippsland Art Gallery